Language Subtypes in Young Autistic Children and the Influence of Parental Education, Educational Environment and Diet.

Abstract

The challenges associated with language development in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are well-documented and widely recognized. The current study aimed to identify subtypes of language development in children with ASD and to examine how environmental factors, such as parental education, home educational environment and diet affect the severity of their language difficulties. Of the 110 Chinese children aged 3-6 years participated in the study, 80 children diagnosed with ASD and 30 typically developing (TD) children matched for age and gender. Language abilities were assessed using a vocabulary test and the Gesell language subscale. Data-driven, two-step clustering was used to identify ASD language subtypes. Additionally, information about the parents' years of education and the number of adult and children's books in the household collected. Questionnaires regarding the children's dietary 'pickiness' were also completed. The data-driven clustering analysis revealed an optimum of two language subtypes in ASD individuals with different symptom severity and social subtypes. The lower language ability group had parents with shorter education duration (ps < 0.01) and fewer books for children (ps < 0.05) compared with the higher ability and TD groups. In the ASD groups there was a positive correlation between parental education duration, number of household books and language ability, but not for dietary "pickiness" as a measure of diet quality. Overall, we have identified two ASD language subgroups with different symptom severity and shown parental education and educational environment may contribute to difficulties in language development.